Beyond my Sight
by Nil1875
Summary: He knew very well she could hold her own and could take care of herself better than most adults his age but this was no ordinary stormwing she was trying to kill. This was Rikash Moonsword. D/N Set one year after EM. No RotG. R&R
1. Prologue

Welcome! This is my first Immortals story. I've been rereading the books recently after a long time away and reading any and all fanfiction out there, that's how in love I am with it again. I've been reading Tamora Pierce since I was about 14 and I have to say she is my favorite author.

This story has been sitting in the back of my head and stewing for a couple weeks and last night I sat and started writing. I'm already to 6,000 words so I'll start posting now so people can begin to enjoy it.

Having never written these characters before I feel I haven't captured them quite right but I do my best. I tend to find I undervalue my writing, so it could just be my own insecurity.

Anyway, on to the story! It is of course Daine/Numair, they are so sweet. When I first read Realms of the Gods it was such a SHOCK that they would be together, but now that I'm older and have read again it was obvious from the beginning. Duh. Anyway, enjoy please!

**Setting**: This is set after Emperor Mage, about a year. Disregards Realms of the Gods.

All characters belong to Tamora Pierce.

As with all writers, reviews are loved! Thank you!

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><p>"No, Daine, wait!" Numair cried in vain. Daine had already lept from the tower and was now a hawk, soaring through the air toward the stormwing. Kitten gave an almighty screech as she nearly leapt off the wall after her adopted mother. The only thing stopping her was Numair's hand closed tightly around her tail.<p>

He watched in horror as Daine collided with the blond stormwing and their mingled screeches filled the air. Kitten whimpered in his arms as he dragged her back, away from the edge and he tried to calm the small dragon, even as his own heart was racing in fear.

He knew very well she could hold her own and could take care of herself better than most adults _his _age but this was no ordinary stormwing she was trying to kill. This was Rikash Moonsword.

The wind whipped as scarlet and gold fog surrounded the two battling creatures, the color of stormwing magic and Numair felt his chest tighten even more, if that were possible.

The hawk that was Daine screeched and there was an almighty thunderclap and a light so bright it blinded the mage watching. When his eyes cleared there was no sign of the hawk-girl or stormwing and scarlet smoke was clearing from the air.

All around him every animal in a ten mile radius was screaming at the top of it's lungs. From the courtyard Cloud kicked down her stall door and came charging up the wall to him, nearly knocking him over and upsetting Kitten. The dragon was curled into a tiny ball in his arms rocking gently, cheeping in terror, her scales a violent pink and grey.

"I don't know," he murmured, half in a daze, his hand resting on the pony's nose. "I don't know what happened."

The mare snorted and snapped her teeth at him while Kitten dug her claws into his robe and looked up at him with the saddest look he'd ever seen. She'd already lost one parent and now she feared she had lost another.

"We'll find her," he promised. "No matter where he took her, we'll find her."


	2. Chapter 1

My apologies for the short chapter. I want to have both points of view and both sides of the story in each chapter but the prologue threw it off. Next chapter will have both Numair and Daine.

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><p>Daine blinked slowly as she came around, struggling to remember what had happened to her. The last thing she remembered was jumping off the castle wall in Corus, intent on something as she shifted into a hawk, but she couldn't remember what now. She ached to her very bones and she didn't even try to keep her eyes open. Even the dim light around her hurt too much and she had abandoned the idea almost the first time she had tried to open them.<p>

"Finally awake I see," a voice spoke through her headache. "I honestly thought you were stronger than this, to have a little transportation knock you out cold for three days."

Memory flooded her as Daine forced herself to sit up and look at the owner of the voice. She had been fighting with Rikash, the stormwing she had though was her only friend among the nation of immortals that feasted on human dead after battles.

"Where am I?" she spat, clutching the blanket draped over her closer. She supposed she should at least thank that he had the decency to cover her up, as only her link her mentor the badger god stayed with her when she lifted. Thinking to feel comfort she reached for the token to find her neck bare.

"Where it is?" she screamed, her vision going red. The badger was her oldest friend and protector. Not only would it be harder to find her when she wasn't wearing it but she had no way of knowing if he could sense she was in danger.

"Your little token is where it can be of no harm," Rikash tutted. "As to where you are? That is a different story, one I'm afraid you'll have to wait to hear."

She thought she saw a glimpse of remorse as he turned away but she didn't care. Her fear and anger filled her and she shifted into the largest mammal she could think of, a giant wooly mammoth. No matter they were extinct in the world, she had seen them in Carthak the year before and she knew the sheer size would scare the stormwing senseless. She wasn't disappointed as he scrambled for the door awkwardly. Unfortunately her cell was magicked, again much like the one she had been held in while in Carthak. She couldn't break the bars, even with the added bulk. She shrank into a mouse with no better luck, an invisible barrier prevented her smaller shapes from slipping past the bars.

Forcing herself to calm down she wrapped her human form in the blanket again and sat to meditate. There had to be a way out of here, she just had to calm down and find it. She reached out with her power and explored her surroundings. She opened her eyes with a jolt as she realized she couldn't sense a single animal within her extensive range. It was as if they didn't exist at all. She shivered and drew the cloth closer to her, wondering where she could be that she couldn't hear the People. Tired, scared and impossibly alone Daine closed her eyes and allowed her tears to fall. She cried herself to sleep.

sleep.


	3. Chapter 2

At last, a normal sized chapter. Now it will have the tone I was looking for and will be posted like this from now on. Please enjoy!

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><p>"I don't understand. I thought dragons could go where they wanted to," Numair said, somewhat irritated.<p>

The basilisk in front of him regarded the dragon chittering at him for a moment before nodding. "Kitten says she can go where she wants, if she knows where Daine is. She says she can no longer feel her mother, as if she never existed."

Numair's heart wrenched hearing the word from the young dragon and he crouched down, letting her crawl into his arms. She had hardly left them since Daine had vanished, only moving away to chatter to Tkaa when he had arrived.

"Where could he have taken her? I've been scrying since it happened and can't find a trace of her. I've even tried this," he muttered as bit embarrassed as he held up his hand to reveal a bracelet with a gold locket on it.

"A magical focus?" Tkaa guessed and Numair nodded.

Kitten chirped and Tkaa smiled before he translated. "She asks why you have such a thing if you haven't told her mother of your feelings. She says parents are meant to be together and…" he paused, a very amused look now on his face, despite the situation. "And that her father needs to stop being a thick headed dolt."

Numair sat down hard as he stared at the little dragon. The last she had obviously picked up from Cloud but that wasn't the important part right now. Kitten had called him her father. His mind didn't even consider the rest of what Tkaa said, instead filing it away for a much later time.

"Her…"

"Father," Tkaa repeated with a soft emphasis. Kitten chirped a sound that obviously corresponded to the word and Numair couldn't stop the smile that crossed his face.

"We'll find her, Kit. I promise," he reassured her and she hummed, her scales brightening for the first time in two days.

"First we must find where the immortal has taken her," Tkaa said, his voice a thoughtful whisper. In all my years I have never heard of such a thing. Even when mortals…die," he seemed reluctant to use the word and Kitten flinched. "There is an essence left. Daine has died before, has she not?" he asked.

Numair nodded, remembering how she told him that she had fallen on a nest of dinosaur skeletons when she had held the power of the Graveyard Hag the year before on their ill-fated journey to Carthak. Because she couldn't control the power it had drained her life force and the Badger had returned her. Kitten had been with her, even in the Divine Realms.

"But you can't follow her this time," he muttered to the dragon. She shook her head, her eyes sad.

A knock sounded on the door and Tkaa moved over to open it, revealing two figures, one considerably shorter than the other, with blazing red hair and purple eyes. Her companion had dark hair and blue eyes.

"We heard what happened, what do you know?" The Lioness demanded as she stormed into the room. "We only just got away from the meetings with Kaddar's emissary's." King Jonathan followed at a slightly more sedate pace, his eyes filled with worry.

"We are not sure," Tkaa said as he closed the door again. "Only that they are somewhere we know nothing about. Even if Daine were no longer among the living, Skysong may follower her spirit to the Divine Realms."

"And she can't," Alanna concluded, some of her anger wearing off as she crouched in front of the mage and dragon and held her arms out.

With a moments consideration Kitten looked up at Numair and made her sound that obviously meant 'Da' and he smiled, opening his arms and nodding. "Go on little one," he whispered and she scrambled into Alanna's arms with a soft chirp, curling up as the knight rocked her back and forth.

"This is the calmest she's been since…" his throat tightened as Jon sat on the bed behind him and gripped his shoulder.

"She has a beautiful way with children," he said softly as Alanna sang a gentle lullaby to the dragon. "To think, she almost sang that song to our children."

Numair looked up at the king sharply while Alanna gave Jon a sickly sweet smile that said nothing of the sort had ever been the case and he laughed.

"You wouldn't have survived the first year if I had borne your children," she told him sweetly. "Kally and Rould are handful enough with Thayet as a mother."

"I will require an explanation at a much later date," Numair interrupted. "For now can we get back to finding her mother?" he asked softly as he pointed at Kitten who had fallen asleep in Alanna's arms. He didn't want to wake the sleeping dragonet, she hadn't slept since the incident, as he decided to call it. He couldn't bear hearing himself say 'Since Daine vanished,' one more time.

"Where could he have taken her though? To not be able to find any trace of her? Is there such a place?" Jon's tone was thoughtful as he tugged his short beard.

Numair shook his head. All his years of study had never prepared him for something like this. "I've looked through every book I have here, there are more at my tower, and the library, but I can't comb them all."

"We already have people on the library," Jon said gently, noting the strain in Numari's voice. "As for your other books I can send Gary out with a troop of the Own to fetch them, if they can get inside, that is." Numair kept his home heavily guarded.

He nodded and bit back a yawn. Truth be told he hadn't slept either and it had been over two days. He'd hardly eaten either and he knew he was consuming his gift to keep himself awake but he had spent every moment since Daine vanished trying to find her, all in vain.

Alanna noticed him trying to hide the yawn and stood. "You need to sleep," she told him sternly. He tried to argue but Jon stood and hauled the other mage up onto the bed and grinned.

"I wouldn't," he said wisely. "She'll make you sleep one way or another. Rest. We'll come if we find anything," he promised at the look on Numair's face.

Reluctantly nodding Numair dragged himself properly onto his bed and collapsed on the pillows, sheer exhaustion taking over. He kept his eyes open long enough to see Alanna tucking Kitten into his arms and pulling a blanket over him before the world went dark. He'd obviously used more of his gift trying to find Daine then he thought. He had nearly burned it all up and he was dangerously close to tapping his own life force. With a deep sigh he let himself succumb to oblivion.

Daine paced. There was nothing else she could do. She didn't know how much time had passed since the first time she had woken, how long she had been asleep or whether it was night or day.

Food and clothing had appeared shortly after she had woken the second time and now she was at least dressed, but she hadn't touched the food. She didn't trust Rikash anymore, though she once would have trusted him with her life. The stormwing hadn't returned since her display and she was irritated. She wanted to be able to take another swipe at him. What could possibly have come over him to be doing this? Whatever this was.

With a sigh she sat down to watch the door, her mind swirling around all the things she would do to the stormwing when she got out of here. It no longer mattered that he had saved her life in Carthak a year before, nor did it matter that they had had contact over that year and become friends, as best a girl filled with hate for stormwings could be friendly. He had given her no reason to distrust him until a few days before, when he had dropped out of the sky with a nasty surprise.

She wasn't sure what hurt most, his plan, or his betrayal. She wished Numair were there so she could ask him if it was right to feel such utter hatred for someone that had been your friend. She shuddered, remembering Ozorne and Numair had once been friends as school boys and realized that yes, given the right motivation, hatred was perfectly acceptable. Closing her eyes she began to recite her first book of Anatomy that her teacher had given her, hearing his calming voice in her head as she remembered each lesson he taught her. It calmed her mind like nothing else had since she had woken and she sighed in relief as she was finally able to begin composing her thoughts in some logical organization.

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><p>So I threw in the small bit with Jon and Alanna because I also just reread those books and while I LOVE George I always loved Alanna and Jon and I also somewhat feel it's about time SOMEBODY knew they had an affair when they were young. But then I'm just nosey like that.<p>

Please review! :)


	4. Chapter 3

When Numair opened his eyes it was dark outside his window and Kitten was sitting on the bench under it, her forepaws on the sill as she stared at the stars sadly. He sat up and was about to call her when silver fire bloomed at the foot of his bed and a weight settled near his feet.

_-Where is my Kit?- _the badger demanded strongly, rage apparent on his face and in his mood.

Kitten whistled and scurried over, fairly bowling over the badger as she scrambled onto the bed and explained everything in her vocabulary of whistles and chirps. Numair thought he heard his name in there more than once as he waited for her to finish. Finally she quieted and the badger turned to him.

_-Skysong informs me that no trace of Daine can be found. I found _this _at the bottom of the emerald ocean when I tried to look in on her,- _he said as the claw he had given her appeared on the bed.

Numair nearly swore but he kept it to himself so Kitten wouldn't hear. "We don't know," he nearly choked out. "She fought with a stormwing, Rikash, and they vanished. No one has been able to find her since, not even Kit. And Kit followed her to the Divine Realms before, she told me."

Kitten nodded as did the badger, who was shifting nervously.

_-You say a stormwing took her? And none of your humans can find trace of her either? That means there is only one place she can be, for she is not in the Divine Realms, or the Realms of the Black God, about that your kit is right. Knowing the trouble she gets in it was the first place I looked,- _he added to himself.

"Where then, badger? I have come across nothing in my readings that would block the gift, a dragon and a god, no disrespect."

The badger shook his head. _-You are right, there is no record of this place. We do not like to have it broadcast that such a place even exists. We prefer what is forgotten to stay forgotten. It is apparent however that someone knows this information and had used it to capture Daine. To what end, I am not sure, but I think you may be able to identify the driving force behind this attack.-_

"But it was Rikash that took her! Is he not acting alone?" Numair asked, his eyes never leaving the badger as Kitten crawled back into his lap and he stroked her gently.

-_I know Rikash Moonsword, and I tell you now he would never do such a thing of his own free will. The affection he feels for Daine is as a brother to a sister. Someone else is behind this, controlling him. Someone who has found out about the vault.-_

"Vault?" Numair said as Kitten chirped her own question.

-_I am not allowed to speak of it,- _the badger muttered. -_It is a place the great gods created once to lock away the most horrible criminals to suffer and die as punishment for their crimes. No mortal, dragon or animal god may sense it or anyone who it inside it. Only the Graveyard Hag and Mithros himself know how to enter or leave it, though I have heard rumors how. I will return with more information when I have it. Do not leave the city.-_

Kitten chirped sadly and the badger nudged her. -_Your mother is safe Kit, don't fear. She will be found.-_

Kitten nodded and curled into a tight ball, a grayish hue coloring the outside of her dull blue scales.

-_Are you aware that this kit now calls you her father?- _the badger asked Numair with amusement.

He nodded solemnly. "Tkaa told me. I am honored that she considers me to be family."

The badger sneezed. _-She is right you know. Parents belong together. Wait for my return, Mage.-_

Light bloomed and he was gone before Numair could more than frown. He didn't understand why Kitten was suddenly so concerned with he and Daine being together. They were always together and they would be again, he would make sure of it.

He glanced down at the dragon as a stray thought crossed his mind. His face colored as he realized that perhaps he wasn't misinterpreting so much as the young dragons definition of 'together' as somehow changed quite drastically. Still fighting down the blush that colored his cheeks at the very idea Numair rose and stretched, entering the privy to bath and shave before he returned to the library to continue his search. He felt slightly more hopeful now that he had a vague idea of what exactly to search for.

"May I enter, or will you attempt to crush me with another long extinct shape, your highness?" The mocking voice floated through the door and Daine looked over to find Rikash only barely visible beyond the doorframe.

"Come close enough and I'll put your eyes out with my bare hands," she growled.

Rikash nodded and moved closer, his claws awkward on the stone floor. He stopped a distance away and regarded her, his green eyes guarded.

"Sunk so low that you started bathing?" she asked with a sneer. His normal coat of filth and dried blood was gone and his hair was clean and rebraided. He was almost presentable.

"This is not my doing," he scowled. "My…master, dislikes the nature of our kind."

"Master? You are servant to no one, Rikash Moonsword," Daine said angrily. "You expect me to believe you haven't betrayed me? That you didn't try to kill my kit? You came at her with Dragonsbane Rikash! You knew it would kill her, she's so young!"

Rikash flinched and backed away at the anger in the girls eyes. "I swear to you, Veraldaine Weirynsra, on my honor as a stormwing of the Stone Tree Nation, I have not betrayed you of my own free will. Nor would I harm Skysong."

"What did you just call me?" Daine demanded, her eyes narrowing.

Rikash shifted nervously but didn't look away. "Your true name. Weirynsra. Weiryn's daughter."

"You know my da?" The shock couldn't have hit her harder if Rikash had grown hands and slapped her in the face.

"I do. And I hate to think the talking to I'll get from him when this is over, if you haven't killed me first." He made to leave and Daine scrambled to the bars, shaking them angrily.

"Tell me about my father!" she screamed as the immortal continued to walk away. "Tell me!"

He didn't respond, instead vanishing through the door and slamming it shut with a bolt of stormwing magic, closing out her cries.

Crying now, the girl sank to the floor, her calm mind once more flooded with confusion. She was being held in a room with bars separating about two thirds of it, with an iron door that she would never be able to move herself, even if she could get near it, in a place where Kitten couldn't follow her and she couldn't sense a single animal presence. She was almost certain she had been gone close to a week and Numair still hadn't found her either. Her link to the badger was gone and no matter how many times she called, he didn't come. Now Rikash was swearing he was just a puppet and knew her father. It was almost more than the sixteen year old could take, even as strong as she was.

Sitting down she drew in a breath and closed her eyes, letting her senses roam. She could feel a presence now, distantly and as she drew closer she realized it was a hurrok, a winged horse with claws instead of hooves. She shivered as she sense Rikash and several other stormwings, along with a few flying monkeys. She realized knowing how many there were between her and escape would not help and instead she drew into herself, shaping her image so that she sat beside the copper wellspring of her magic and drew her fingers across the waters. She didn't know how long she sat there, or that Rikash came in more than once to try and rouse her. She simply sat and waited for her mind to tell her what it needed to.

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><p>Please review?<p> 


	5. Chapter 4

Numair rubbed his eyes as he set aside another scroll. Kitten whistled and handed him the one she had been pouring over on the floor. So far neither one of them had found any mention of this vault that the badger had told them about.

Leaning back in his chair Numair closed his eyes She had been gone for close to a week now and his normally calm mind was being to fray at the edges and the strain was showing on his face.

He didn't realize just how much he had come to rely on Daine for everything, especially his sanity. Her gruff common sense often hit him upside the head like a ton of bricks and made him think before he did whatever idiot thing he'd been about to do. He smiled as he fingered the locket at his wrist, popping it open and looking at her portrait.

He had been thinking since the visit with the badger and was slowly beginning to realize it wasn't just a focus to find his student, it was a token to remind him of his best friend when they were apart, rare though that was. He smiled as he thought of how she had torn down the imperial palace in Carthak when she thought he was dead and wondered just how far her feelings towards him went. He certainly knew that since they had returned it had been nagging him at the back of his mind that he was slowly falling in love with her.

Kitten abandoned her new scroll and climbed into his lap with a sullen cheep, her claws closing gently around the locket to look at her mother.

"I know, Kit," he murmured, stroking her head as she whistled.

-_I miss Ma.-_

It was such a quiet whisper that Numair thought he was imagining things as he looked down at the young dragon on his lap. It was impossible, she was only three years old, she shouldn't be able to speak mind to mind until she was two or three hundred.

"Kit?"

-_I miss Ma.- _This time it was stronger and he was sure he hadn't been imagining things. Lifting the dragon to look in her eyes he saw her looking at him reproachfully, as if he should have understood what you was saying.

"I can hear you," he mumbled in shock. She nodded with a whistle cheep and nudged his cheek with her nose.

-_Da, bring Ma home,- _she said softly.

"Oh Kit," Numair sighed, hugging her close. "I will, I promise. The badger will find a way, I will find a way." He frowned. He considered laying out an offering to the Graveyard Hag and begging her help, but after her attitude toward Daine the year before he was reluctant and saved it as an absolute last resort.

As it happened he needn't have bothered. Silver light bloomed in the dark library and the badger appeared on the table in front of them. Standing next to him was the Graveyard Hag herself.

Kitten whistled happily and climbed up to hug the badger, hardly sparing a glare at the goddess. The chain that held the badgers claw swung around her neck as she chirped.

Numair rose from his chair and bowed, biting his lip before he straightened. "Great Lady," he said softly.

"Oh enough of that laddy, we don't have the time. The badger has informed me of his suspicions that Daine has been taken into the Gods vault. I am afraid he is right and you must hurry if you intend to rescue her."

Kitten whistled in annoyance and a stream of curses brushed through Numair's mind that made his jaw drop. Where on earth had she learned those words? From himself or Daine he was sure, perhaps from the Lioness. He filed it away to talk to her about later.

-_Skysong, she is here to help, please refrain from such language,- _the badger said with calculated patients.

She chirped an apology and Numair smiled.

-_She has been captured by stormwings, but it was not Rikash Moonsword that organized this. It was someone much closer to your own past that has taken her.-_

"Ozorne," Numair swore under his breath.

"Now you know why I am here," the Hag said with an angry growl. "I've had just about enough of him, and seeing as Razorwing and her clan couldn't take him down I must leave it to you, mage. I am forbidden to interfere."

Numair's head was spinning again. Though the idea that Ozorne was behind this wasn't all that surprising they had all believed he was dead after that night.

"If you cannot interfere…" Numair started.

The goddess shrugged. "Not strictly speaking no, but I grant you and the young one leave to enter the vault and to return with your companion. I will grant the same to Rikash if it is proved his is not a traitor. I was always rather fond of that one, despite his smell," she grinned.

"But how will we find it?"

Kitten sat up and cheeped, her eyes glazed over slightly. -_South. Ma is south, across the sea.-_

The hag turned her one good eye to the dragon and stared at her critically. "This is a new trick little one, to be able to see into my mind before I speak. Few of your adult kin can do such a thing."

-_She fears for her mother,- _the badger said, shifting his weight. -_It is a powerful motivation to do things beyond our normal reach.-_

The hag nodded after a moment and turned to Numair, holding out her hand. "Take this, it will allow you passage to and from the vault. Follow the young one, she will lead you to her mother."

"Can you sense her now?" the mage asked Kitten and she responded with a happy peep as her scales flared deep blue and she nodded.

-_Ma is safe. Rikash hasn't hurt her. I can find her now,- _she said, pride in her tiny voice.

"Simply amazing," Numair murmured as he hugged the dragon. Turning to the gods he bowed again. "Thank you. I don't know how to repay you."

The goddess snorted. "Kill that traitorous filth and we are even. As for the badger I believe he has simpler motivation. Good luck, mortal." With a nod she vanished and the badger sneezed.

-_She is right, I simply wish to see my kit safe.-_

"You will come with us then?" Numair asked.

-_Indeed. When may we leave?-_

Numair hesitated. He knew he needed to speak to the king and he hoped that perhaps Alanna would pull one of her rash stunts and insist on coming with him. He could use her power and her sense to keep him in line.

-_Speak with your friends then, I will wait here with Skysong.-_

Nodding Numair trotted off to see the king.


End file.
